Property owners see little change in tax bills

KAUKAUNA — City taxpayers have seen little change in their tax bills following adoption of the 2017 budget.

The budget motion passed Nov. 15, 2016 by the city council and a copy of the document was published last week to the city’s website. Download a pdf HERE.

The tax rate for the city’s portion of the bill dropped a little more than 1 percent from $8.98 to $8.88 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The Kaukauna School District portion also fell about 1 percent, from $8.87 to $8.80 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The overall tax rate fell about a penny to $22.27 per $1,000 of assessed value, including county taxes, Kaukauna School District, Fox Valley Tec, as well as the state school credit.

That means the owner of $100,000 home would have a tax bill of $2,227. Even though the tax rate went down, the levy rose by $37,055 and property owners could see a higher tax bill if their assessed value went up over last year.

The 2017 general fund expenditure budget of $13,339,386 increased $443,400 or 3.44 percent Even with this increase, the city will continue to qualify for Sstate expenditure restraint program funds. The expenditure restraint program will provide approximately $275,000 in revenues for 2017, according to the budget summary.

The budget includes no new staff positions and department spending remains relatively flat compared to last year, according to the introduction on the city’s website.

City staff had to come up with a couple of expense estimates following the city’s move to the new Municipal Services Building as well as the new library.

The Municipal Services Building is a new efficient building, while the Carnegie building is not being used as a library anymore, rather currently being used to house the Kaukauna Recreation Department Dance class while the community rooms are being renovated, according to city staff.

Once staff has a year worth of expenses, these budget lines will be trued-up in the 2018 and future budgets.